This thing called hypocrisy

Tom Westfall

Guest columnist

Posted:
06/08/2017 10:22:08 PM MDT

(The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform.)

There is probably a little hypocrisy in us all. Think about it. We profess one thing, but behave in a manner that contra-indicates our stated belief. It's part of being a flawed human being; there is no such thing as achieving perfection.

I was thinking about the nature of hypocrisy relative to two separate incidents that I experienced recently. The first occurred in the context of a discussion about church attendance following an opinion piece that I wrote recently. A reader sent me a note which indicated that his lack of participation in church was the result of "too much hypocrisy." He went on to detail how he experiences "Sunday Christians;" people who attend church on Sunday but are not living up to their espoused beliefs the remainder of the time. He said, "I just get sick and tired of people who profess to believe in God treating others in their community with total disregard."

Tom Westfall Guest columnist

Although I have yet to take the time to write this individual back, what I would tell him is this: He's correct — we all fail to meet the standard of perfection to which he would hold us accountable. We (those attending church) spend time focusing on ourselves rather than others; we gossip about members of the community; we try to get an edge on others with whom we do business...

But rather than viewing these issues as evidence of hypocrisy and reasons to eschew organized religion, I choose to view this as human frailty, and I would suggest that while all of us have fallen short of the mark, the church wasn't meant for the sinless — it was meant for men and women who truly want to do better in their lives and the discipline of worship helps them (albeit imperfectly) move in that direction.

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The second incident was regarding the outrage that Kathy Griffin's recent portrayal of the bloody severed head of President Trump generated. Although I enjoy political humor, I was in agreement with the vast majority of conservatives and thoughtful liberals who decried this behavior as boorish and inappropriate. The outrage generated, particularly by those that are ardent supporters of the President, was predictable and vociferous, and I would join their chorus of "enough is enough."

One particular individual in my Facebook feed went so far as to call for her to be tried for treason. (Personally, I'm not sure how that would be possible, since "poor taste" isn't a crime.) I was just about to move on to the next post, when I remembered this individual's absolute distain for President Obama and how he had characterized him in previous posts in bigoted, racist terms.

Going back through his posts of last year, I found several that were less than flattering to the President and in fact, several that were downright racist. In one of his posts, he portrayed the Obama family as apes and in another there was a picture of President Obama on a horse with a rope around his neck and the suggestion that "southern justice" might be needed.

The disconnect for me was startling. Here was an individual who would have Kathy Griffin tried for treason, yet his own racists rants about former President Obama still remained intact on his wall — tributes to his truncated moral compass.

Here's the thing. If you were offended by Kathy Griffin's remarks about President Trump, then good for you; you should have been. They were over the top and without merit. If on the other hand, you were not equally alarmed by the racist commentary, political cartoons, and bigoted rants about President Obama, then you truly are a hypocrite and you need to seriously examine your heart. You simply can't have it both ways.

Imperfect though we are, thoughtful people will know that while political satire and humor are fair game in our society, there is a line that should never be crossed. For example, expressing the hope that someone dies, is banished from the country, or is intellectually inferior because of their race crosses the line.

If you're a liberal who thought the attacks on President Obama were horrible and racially motived and you don't denounce Kathy Griffin's shameless attack on President Trump, then you're a hypocrite.

And if you're a conservative and you're outraged by her behavior, but tolerated the racist, bigoted attacks upon President Obama, then you are a hypocrite as well.

And frankly, just like my aforementioned reader pointed out, "The last thing the world needs is more hypocrisy."

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